Our Blog

Welcome to our new Blog! We are excited to have this opportunity to interact with you and help keep you informed on all the great things that are going on. Our site is a great place to discover the many ways we can help you with books for leisure or study, music for a long car trip or to sing along to in your car, DVDs for you and the kids and more! Check back often for new information and leave us questions or comments, so we can help serve you better. to email us simply click the link Email Melbergs or call us 1-800-284-1553.

A few months ago I was walking to my car after a Friday at Melbergs. As I was getting into my car, a middle-aged couple was getting out of theirs on their way into Sarellos. Just as they passed me, the wife looked up at our sign and said, Oh Honey look, theres Melbergs! Your mom loved Melbergs. Her tone suggested that Honeys mom is no longer with us and hasnt been for a while.

The next day I went to visit my mother at Eventide. As I do on most visits, I worked my way toward her room slowly, stopping along the way to greet all of our customers who now reside in the nursing home. Some days it takes a while.

What do these incidents have in common? The world is changing, the economy is changing, and, obviously, our customer base has changed. Forty years ago, when my father-in-law took over ownership of Melbergs, the store was already 20 years old and an institution in the area. If you went to a Lutheran church in a large radius around Fargo-Moorhead you knew Melbergs and chances are your church purchased its Sunday School curriculum, VBS and church supplies there. Even when I started working at the store in 1987, VBS was a 10 day extravaganza at many churches. Today, its still popular, but many churches have gone to evenings, August, or one day events.

Things have changed. The internet has made shopping a different experience. Notice how youre reading this! The needs of our customers and churches have changed and so have we. Nowadays, our customer base is much more varied. We see more seekers and a lot more first-time customers. We are doing our best to keep up, but change is hard, as we all know. I sometimes miss the old days. It was a lot more simple and straightforward, but the new Melbergs is a pretty exciting place to be. As the gift buyer, I love to try to guess what new trend will excite our customers and keep them coming back!

So, in essence, its not your mamas Melbergs anymore. Wed like it to be your Melbergs as we move forward. What would you like to see more of? What would help you on your faith journey? Feel free to drop in or drop us an email at melbergs@melbergs.biz.

It is summer. I am visiting a friends church in suburban Minneapolis. At the appropriate time in the worship service, Lutherans stand to recite the Apostles Creed. I glance over at my friend, a classics scholar, who opens his Bible to reveal a loose, typewritten sheet with the words of the Creed printed in Latin. He slides the paper toward me.

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. we begin in unison as my eyes are drawn to the Latin text: Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, Creatoram coeli et terrae." My mind races back 30 years to the shrouded memories of my one semester of college Latin. Eras, erat, eram

And in Jesus Christ, Gods only Son, our Lord, I hear from the gathered community. My eyes rest on the same words in another expression, Et in Jesum Christum, Filiam ejus unicum Dominum nostrum; These Latin words are practically all cognates with their English counterparts, I realize. Theyve worked their way into modern English partly because of their prevalence in the vocabulary of the church catholic, but they are also woven into the fabric of English via its constant intermingling with Latinate tongues over centuries.

qui conceptus est de Spiritu Sanctu, natus ex Maria virgine, suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucifixus, mortuus, et sepultus, descendit ad infernaon the third day he rose again The printed words blend with the words spoken by the congregation. Im thankful for college Latin. Im thankful for brain cells that can be reactivated after decades of dormancy. I am thankful for this moment in time when my senses are engaged in a holy space among other believers.

Many of these same words and concepts, based on ideas put forth in the books of the Christian canon, can be found in documents as early as the Creed of Hyppolytus (215 AD) and form the basis of other statements of belief across generations and generations. Those gathered unite their voices with the voices of believers past, as time becomes elastic, telescoping backward and forward: .ascended into heaven, sedet ad dexteram Dei Patris omnipotentis, from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead. Credo in Spiritum Sanctum, sanctam ecclesiam catholicam, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, vitam oeternam. Amen

Visit our website and click on Read a Chapter to sample over 500 books online. We are excited about the long days and fun nights and hope that you are too.

Take a minute and tell us and other customers about your favorite book, CD or DVD for this summer. Some are old favorites and others are new favorites; we are always looking for another great read. If you canít pick just one, leave a list! Let our store be your home for great summer fun!